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Gather red, black and yellow raspberry varieties at pick-your-own farms
• by Pat Eby • Photo by Josh Monken
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Raspberries make the prettiest fairy hats,” my grandmother Rose said, as we sorted and cleaned our just-picked bounty. “Try one on your pinkie,” she suggested. While my finger-fairies danced in raspberry hats on a kitchen table stage, she and my great-aunt Lanna sorted the fragile fruits. Perfect berries for pies for dinner. Bruised berries for cobblers and preserves. Berries for cereal the next morning. Anything left would be canned by noon.
I still pick raspberries. Nothing beats the flavor of fresh berries, and this spring ritual reminds me of my grandparents, my great-aunt and my pleasure in their company. But this year the berry season almost didn’t happen. Luckily, enough local crops survived the early spring warming and subsequent freeze for the pick-your-own farms to open. The berries will be fewer, smaller and available mid-June – though Carl Lask of Lakeview Farms near O’Fallon, Mo., advised calling the night before for up-to-date hours and picking conditions. The farm opens early each day and closes before noon. “The early bird gets the berry,” Lask said.
Berry-picking is fun, but harvesting can be hard work. Raspberry canes are prickly, but not so daunting you can’t go for berries deep in the canes. Choose plump, evenly colored berries. A ripe raspberry needs only a gentle tug to release – which means most young children aren’t great berry pickers, but they will have fun spending time in the field. Place, never toss, each berry carefully in a flat; raspberries need to be in layers less than 2 inches deep so berries on the bottom don’t flatten.
At Lakeview, look for Nova, a red, tart, strong-tasting berry. “It’s perfect for jams,” Lask said, “and for beautiful, big raspberry tarts.” Reveille, softer and milder, will be available as well, provided the weather isn’t too sunny. “Reveille is like a redhead, super-sensitive to sun,” Lask said. “They will actually cook on the vine, [sun exposure] turning the berry white.” His spring crop of Anne, a large yellow berry, was lost, but Lask’s raspberries, including Anne, produce a second fruiting in August. Look for Prelude, a new variety for 2007, to debut then as well.
For a berry of a different hue, consider black raspberries from Reinhardt’s Berry Patch in Alhambra, Ill. Try Jewel, a firm black raspberry with a glossy skin, or Mac Black, a softer black berry. Owner Janice Reinhardt prefers the taste of black raspberries to red. “Old-timers know how good they taste,” she said. “I tell new customers the black has so much more flavor, but don’t just pop a black raspberry in your mouth, press it against the roof of your mouth and let the flavor flow.” Picking at this family farm is by appointment only; if you can’t make it to the farm, the Reinhardts sell berries, picked and ready, at the Land of Goshen Community Market in downtown Edwardsville each Saturday. They will also have red raspberries later in the season.
Fresh raspberries will last two or three days. Refrigerate the berries as soon as you get home, but don’t wash them until you are ready to use them. Check daily for mold. Lask suggested freezing individual berries: Wash carefully, blot dry, arrange in a single layer on a cookie sheet and freeze until firm; store the frozen berries in freezer bags. Freezing changes their texture, but they still taste great.
Hit the fields in the early morning, when dewdrops sparkle and translucent reds shine against lime-green leaves. With berries fresh as a blush and sweet as a kiss, quite a few never make it into the flat. And in the sun, amongst the butterflies and buzzing of bees, you might catch a red-hatted fairy flitting past.
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Raspberry-Lemon Curd Tart
Courtesy of Stellina Pasta Café’s Lisa Tochtrop
8 4-inch tarts
For the shell:
¾ cup (1½ sticks) cold, unsalted butter, cubed
2 cups all-purpose flour
¾ cup finely ground pecans
3 Tbsp. granulated sugar
¼ tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. cream (or more if needed)
• Combine all of the ingredients except the cream in a food processor and process until the mixture is the consistency of coarse meal.
• Add the cream in a thin, steady stream, processing until a ball forms.
• Remove the dough, pat it into a disk and chill it for at least 2 hours.
• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
• Roll the dough out on a floured surface and press it into 8 4-inch tart pans.
• Prick the bottom of the tart shells with a fork and bake them until they are light golden brown, about 20 minutes.
• Cool the shells completely on a wire rack before filling.
For the filling:
5 egg yolks
5 whole eggs
¾ cup (1½ sticks) unsalted butter
1 Tbsp. grated lemon zest
2 cups granulated sugar
½ cup lemon juice
1 cup Mascarpone cheese
Fresh raspberries
Powdered sugar for dusting (optional)
• Lightly beat the egg yolks and the whole eggs in a mixing bowl and set aside.
• Combine the butter, lemon zest, sugar and lemon juice in a nonreactive saucepan and bring to a boil.
• Slowly add the hot lemon and sugar mix to the beaten eggs, stirring steadily, to temper the egg mixture.
• Return the egg mixture to the heat and stir constantly until it thickens.
• Allow the mixture to cool, then blend in the mascarpone cheese.
• Fill the tart shells with the lemon curd.
• Cover the top with fresh raspberries, domed end up.
• Dust with powdered sugar, if desired.
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